These works are under the management of Mr. R. Ransford, and during the twelve months ending May, 1875, produced 50,000 barrels of salt, which sold for seventy cents per barrel. The yield has been steadily increasing, the production in 1873 having been 40,000 barrels, which was disposed of in Canada at an average price of ninety cents per barrel. The value of the plant and works owned by this Company in 1874 was $5000. there was a force of thirty-three hands, working eight months, and a pay-roll of $1,158.30 per month. The quantity of salt manufactured in 1873 was 57,076 barrels, which sold at an average price of ninety-six cents per barrel. The production is annually increasing, being for the past year from 90,000 to 100,000 barrels.—Onondaga formation. 10. Seaforth, O. a. Salt. Merchants Salt Company. The production of salt by this Company in 1873 was 50,000 barrels, valued at $47,500. The value of the plant and works in 1874 was $45,000, the number of hands employed twenty-six, and their pay-roll $912.60 per month, working eight months in the year. The greater part of the salt was sold in Canada, only 3 500 barrels, going to the United States. The daily capacity of the works is 300 barrels per day. NOTE. From the carefully compiled tables of Mr. J. Lionel Smith, we learn that in 1874 the capital invested in the salt interest in Ontario was $624,000, the value of plant and works being $571,838. The total production of fine salt in 1873 was 438,076 barrels, and of coarse salt 13,500 barrels, valued at $436,218; of which 226,576 barrels were sold in the Dominion and 225,000 barrels in the United States. There were also manufactured about 3,040 tons of land salt, valued at $8,360. The consumption of wood for that year was 50,635 cords, valued at $143,096, and the amount paid for wages was $89,524.24. Since that time, owing to various causes, the price has declined, but at many of the wells the returns show a considerable increase in the production, though the absence of official returns for the past two years renders it difficult to make a complete report for that period. The surface-rock in the Ontario salt region belongs to the Corniferous formation, although the brine is believed in all cases to come from the underlying Onondaga formation. Brine springs of greater or less strength occur at several places in King's County. They are supposed to be derived from a series of bright red sandstones and brownish-red shales, forming one of the upper members of the Lower Carboniferous formation. The brine obtained from them has been employed for the separation of the contained salt at the locality above-named since 1827, but only in a very rude and uneconomical way, there being no concentration previous to boiling, and great waste of heat from improper construction of the ovens. The quantity manufactured per year is very variable; under favourable circumstances, however, it reaches sixty to seventy bushels per week, but might readily be increased to 300 bushels per week. Its consumption is entirely local, chiefly in the manufacture of butter, for which it is preferred by the farmers to all imported salts. The price at Sussex is $1.20 per bushel, or $4.00 per barrel of four bushels.-Lower Carbonifer ous. 13. Apohaqui, N.B. a. Salt. F .Joseph F. Sharp. 14. Cardwell, N.B.. a. Salt. . Thomas Mercer. 15. Salt Springs, Cumberland County, N.S....... J. Hickman, Amherst, N.S. a. Saline water. This water is from a spring 2 miles east of Springhill Mines. Salt has been manufactured here in a small way for about twenty years. The yield of salt is one bushel from 100 to 120 gallons of brine.-Carboniferous. This water was obtained from a spring on the property of Mrs. Capron, near Smith's Creek bridge. It has not been analyzed. 3. St Catherines, O..... a. Mineral water (aline.) Geological Survey. 4. Gillan's Spring, Pakenham, Fitzroy Township, O..... Geological Survey. The following analyses of these different waters were made many years ago by Dr. T. S. Hunt. At the north-western end of Texada Island, crystalline limestones are well exposed along the coast, for a distance of about seven miles. They are white dove-grey, and bluish in colour, and resemble those of Mount Mark on Vancouver Island; some of the white, however, being of rather finer texture. The beds are traversed by numerous joints, so that in most places it would be difficult to obtain sound blocks of large dimensions.-Carboniferous? There are about thirty feet of this stone exposed in a cliff at Mr. Hyslop's quarry, in beds from three to six feet thick, and large blocks can be easily obtained. The annual production varies according to the demand, being from 1,000 to 3,000 cords. At the quarry, rubble sells for $2.00 per cord, and stone fit for dressing for $6.00 per cord. The stone makes good lime, but is chiefly used for building purposes. The piers of the Maitland Bridge at Goderich and the Goderich jail are built of it.-Corniferous formation, Devonian. 3. St. Mary's, O................ a. A six-inch cube of limestone, dressed. Geological Survey. 4. Downey's Rapids, Hog Lake, O...... a. Two six-inch cubes of limestone, dressed. Wallbridge Bros., Belleville. These limestones are from an escarpment about one hundred feet high which runs along the south shore of Hog Lake. The pale drab specimen is from near the base of the escarpment, and occurs in a bed twelve to fourteen inches thick. Its geological horizon is probably the same as that of the lithographic stone of Marmora. The brownish-grey limestone is from a bed between eighty and a hundred feet higher in the series, the intervening beds being of poor quality. The window sill is from the same escarpment. Small quantities of these stones have been quarried and used in the construction of Wallbridge's mills at Downey's Rapids. Window sills or stones for coping can be obtained more than ten feet in length.— Birdseye and Black River formation, Lower Silurian. 5. Lanark Village, O..... a. A six-inch cube of limestone, dressed. Geological Survey. This building stone is obtained from a band of Laurentian limestone supposed to be over 1,000 feet thick. At its base it is thinly-bedded, and affords large flagstones, which are employed at Lanark for hearths and doorsteps. The beds gradually thicken, however, to about three feet, and blocks of this thickness and any required length and breadth can be obtained. The limestone is underlaid by hornblende rocks and diorites, and succeeded by a dolomite containing large quantities of tremolite. Like the Arnprior limestone, which is probably an extension of the same band, it displays a banded or barred structure, the alternate layers being white and grey. The latter owe their colour to finely disseminated graphite. The following analyses show that the limestone is somewhat magnesian, and also that the grey layers are more highly magnesian than the white : It has been employed for building purposes both in Lanark and Perth, and for culverts on the road between these places.-Laurentian. |